We don’t often cover non-computer non-security news on Naked Security.

(Don’t worry. When we do, we take great care to find some sort of connection – however nebulous – to the cyberworld, just to keep you, our readers, onside, and to ensure that the URIs in your web logs look as relevant and as important as ever.)

But some news just cries out to be told, like this: that researchers at the European Organization for Nuclear Research, better known as CERN, claim to have exported subatomic particles from Switzerland to Italy at greater than the speed of light!

You read that correctly. Greater than the speed of light – something which even science fiction fans accept isn’t really supposed to happen.

But received wisdom – and the so-called Standard Model of physics – says that the neutrinos ought to have topped out at just 299792 kilometres per second, the speed of light. Suddenly, the laws of physics seem to have an exploitable vulnerability.

The results now need checking out, a project which researchers worldwide will doubtless be keen to take on.

Unless and until the findings are disproved, however, we can all hope that this means that the speed of light will no longer be the limiting factor in the speeds at which we can send data across the internet.

And then, who knows?

Perhaps we will be able to replace our fibre optic cables with neutrino-based transmission systems, and gain an unexpected 0.07% improvement in performance?

Just imagine how much more YouTube video we’d be able to pack into our busy lives!

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About the author

Paul Ducklin is a passionate security proselytiser. (That's like an evangelist, but more so!) He lives and breathes computer security, and would be happy for you to do so, too.
Follow him on Twitter: @duckblog

16 comments on “Has CERN found an exploitable vulnerability in physics?”

sweet :D, just watching Star Trek Voyager and have been speculating about warp speed, speed of light, transporter capabilities etc. One question though, would I get more views on my bankslayer YouTube channel using this capability? tehehehe BTW – loved the segway :P

I doubt this is true. The measurements are tiny and it needs to be repeated. If the ~730km distance between them was inaccurate by just 20 meters it would give this result. Of course, if it is repeated this is massive.

The BBC quotes Dr Ereditato as saying "we are not claiming things, we want just to be helped by the community in understanding our crazy result – because it is crazy".

Well I have known that for some year's now without Cern…
I believe that the answer to the question that the science community are seeking is in the wrong place…
The key is Magnets par say…. not the magnet itself but the force that's driving or making the magnet….

When the science community can emplane in plane lamens terms how dose a magnet get it's force then they will know what Nicola Tesla was talking about and Einstein…

you can look at atoms all day long and yes you can go smaller and smaller down to up quarks and down quarks but that's all you will do is just keep getting smaller.

A highly respected Bugarian Professor, Bozhidar Paliushev, published a book, The Physics of GOD 11, in which he descibed his Torsion Physics researches and submitted proof that it is possible to send data at many hundreds of times the speed of light. The Russians recognised the significance of his work and have been working on his theories ever since.

I would venture it’s more a case of expanding our knowledge base rather than an exploitable vulnerability. The existing laws and principles of physics form a practical base from which our minds can then leap forward beyond the confines of conventional knowledge to imagine greater possibilities. Without imagination and creativity, few of our modern technologies would be present. I find myself skeptical, yet hopeful that this “discovery” can be put to conventional use in the near future.

Thanks for all the insight on magnets and the 'nerds' working overtime to solve this issue and of course that the distance could be incorrect. I mean how can these slow coaches at Cern not have realized this before now … I really hope they're reading these posts, I mean they'd be stupid not to.

Thanks for all the insight on magnets and the 'nerds' working overtime to solve this issue and of course that the distance could be incorrect. I mean how can these slow coaches at Cern not have realized this before now … I really hope they're reading these posts, I mean they'd be stupid not to.